Utility Distribution
Sitemap Utility Distribution * See also Utility_Stuff * See also Rapture_Air --- --- --- --- --- Distributed : Power, Heat, Communications, Air, Water, Garbage disposal, Maintenance transport Building utilities : rubbish and postal chutes, fire hydrants, air vents, sewer gratings/drains See my level map of Hephaestus to see example of Utility systems being extended out across Rapture. --- --- --- --- --- Construction Details : Much of the electrical systems in Rapture seems to be in sealed conduits and junction boxes/panels (even the TVs apparently). This all would be logical with the potential for short circuits from leaks/seepage and the likely humidity conditions. These are Technologies similar to those used on ships for well over half a century (at Rapture's time) thus being available. Compartmentalization (watertight sections) would also be done to minimize the spread of the effects of major leaks and other calamities. Maintenance Airlocks allow access for repairs to flooded areas. A general drainage/pumping system is spread throughtout the structures. --- --- --- . . . . . . . . . . 1930s power plant controls. (There seriously wasn't enough of this on view in Rapture Central Control (or Hephaestus) --- --- --- Structural Wiring - How to handle interfacing without 80 billion little wire objects everywhere behind walls ??? : * Realism can be taken too far ... (tedious/complexity/boring) * Buss wiring ?? Ceramic Telegraph style drip-proof insulators with exposed wires (wires still should be enamel coated) * Armored conduit for exposed concrete wall mountings (when there are no inner walls to cover them) * Treat a whole section/room ('building block' asset section of a building) as a single 'mechanism' and have the pipes/wires/vents all be part of one abstracted diagram ??? * Wiring Mini-game (points for minimal wire to solve all connections, and for extra safety features) --- --- --- Garbag-o-Mo (after pneu-mo) : If You did the Pneumo postal system, then you might as well have had a similar system for emptying all the garbage cans (its actually simpler, as the 'routing' is pretty well a fixed destination). Probably it all would be send to the basement where the Utility Trams would haul it (bulk) to Rapture's Dump/Recycling center. Maybe there were so many corpses lying about because they didn't fit in the Garbago-Mo (Garbage Mobilizer), and chopping them up was too much work. Sending corpses to the Little Sisters Fortress likewise would have required rebuilding the Pneumo system, which wasn't possible because of the 'Civil War' emergency. --- --- --- Direct Dial Telephone System : A Rotary phone system (uses relays in a distributed network) would have been installed in Rapture from the start. There's no point in saying that 'The THINKER' controlled it, as that system would NOT exist yet for 10+ years (and its a rather mundane task that you DIDN'T need a computer for). Rapture phone numbers with 2 letter prefix : POseidon 271, FRolic 666, MInervas 101 Some parts of MMORPG New Rapture may be using an Operator until the Auto-Dial is put back in operation. --- --- --- Cable TV Distribution System : Radio waves go thru water really really poorly. So there would have to be a coax cable system thoughout Rapture for all the TVs and Radios we saw in-game. With minimal amplification equipment required (no huge transmitters and antennas) it would lower the cost of operating a TV or Radio station (then the problem is creating content people want to watch/listen to). --- --- --- Air Vents as Secret Passages : Note that on many of my extended Rapture level maps 'secret passages' thru the air vents (the square vent covers you can break out and get passage through to access spaces usually blocked by other obstacles) are indicated for the ones existing in the Solo games. There would actually be many others (full systems of them in fact) on the full MMORPG game maps, as well as various access to other utility systems within the walls. Rapture is actually a rabbit warren of such pathways needed to access the many systems that keep Rapture livable - air/electricity/heating/water/communications/Pneumo/sewage - all are distributed through every part of the City. As previously mentioned, Terrain Creation Tools would be provided to autostitch together such details when composing game building interior additions using the standard templates (and new unique sections would comply with the various interconnects used by the City's utility systems). Understand that Splicers also know about these hidden passageways, so don't be surprised if when you come to that sharp blind corner in the vent-way that you meet a Splicer face to face, or some nasty surprise one has left for you. --- --- --- Cable System for Radio Transmissions in Rapture : Radio waves DONT like Water and DONT Like Concrete/metal. A Radio (and TV) Cable distribution network throughout Rapture would have to be there from the start. --- --- --- --- --- . .